ONE bounce of the ball might have cost Gloucester victory at Harlequins – but it was one bounce too many, believes Will James.

Resurgent Gloucester must not lament their cruel fate at The Stoop last week, they must simply deny the opposition any opportunity for fortune, said the frustrated lock.

The 35-year-old second row said the Cherry and Whites have three games to get themselves in order before their return to league action.

Bryan Redpath's men slipped up 20-14 at Harlequins last weekend, slipping out of the Heineken Cup in the process.

The Kingsholm men host Toulouse tomorrow night (kick-off 8pm) in their final European Cup pool six encounter.

With no chance of qualification for the quarter-finals, James said Gloucester remain desperate for victory – to try to shrug off the nearly-men status that has dogged their season so far.

The Plymouth-born tight-five forward said Gloucester must not allow opponents to develop the platform even to exploit chance.

James explained: "Those mixed feelings are becoming a bit of a frustration.

"You know when you don't play well, and you get beaten fair and square if you don't turn up, and that is frustrating because you are frustrated with yourself more than anything else.

"But when you do turn up and you do play well and you still lose, it's a different kind of disappointment.

"It's just a case of we wish we could have held on to that lead, because I thought the lads really turned up physically.

"It's just tiny things – the bounce of the ball last week, an unlucky charge-down against Leicester.

"But then if you're analytical about it you put yourself in those situations where one bounce can cost you.

"So it's one of those ones where we won't shy away from our natural game but we've got to eliminate those tiny half-percenters, where the game can sway out of our favour.

"But that's all part of the learning curve.

"We don't want to be losing at all obviously, but if we're close in there then at least we're competitive.

"Last week's reaction was a start, but it wasn't a win of course and we've got to build on that now.

"It's really congested in the middle third of the league, and everyone knows at Worcester we didn't give a good account of ourselves.

"We've got one Heineken Cup game and two LV=Cup games to get it right ahead of that league return, and that's what we're after now.

"For us we're out of the competition, but Toulouse coming to Kingsholm is still a massive occasion.

"The game down there was the same situation as we already talked about.

"But getting them back under the lights at Kingsholm will be something to savour for the lads, provided we can put in the right kind of performance."

Fit-again James said he is over his knee trouble that sidelined him over the Christmas period.

Admitting he has had to be careful with his knee complaint, James is keen to make up for lost time now he is back up to full speed.

He continued: "I had an ongoing patella tendon problem that I've had for the last few months but it had just been getting worse and worse really.

"I was on the bench against Connacht and came on for about ten minutes at the end and just aggravated it quite badly.

"So it's been a few weeks over Christmas really, which was frustrating.

"But I've been back in full training for the last couple of weeks now, so it's good.

"Your leg doesn't function normally in terms of power, and when it gets acute it just gets worse and you've just got to try to manage it.

"It's nothing really serious, it just builds up.

"What fixes it really is complete rest, unless you need an operation, but I've just got to keep on top of it.

"But it feels good again now and that's a relief."